Talal Asad on his father Muhammad Asad

 More than once he recited Surat at-takāthur to me with great feeling: “alhākumu-t-takāthur hatta zurtum al-maqābir…..” These verses, he would say, condemn the unending consumerism and greed in which humans (especially in our time) are entrapped: The verses that refer to ‘ilm al-yaqīn and that speak of latarawunna al-jahīm, alerts us to the hell in which we actually live in this world, not merely to punishment in the life to come. My father read these verses as arguing that if we could see this truth with clarity we would realize the hellish aspect of our collective life, the damage we do to ourselves and to others. This was a central moral concern for him, and it points to where an Islamic politics might begin: Muslims are expected to believe that greed as a collective way of life (the insatiable desire for more) and exhibitionism as an individual style (in which theatrical presentations of the self and consumer choices are confused with moral autonomy) have together seduced people away from what he called “God-consciousness” – and therefore from an awareness of the objective consequences of the way we live (militarization of societies, growing disparity between rich and poor, unceasing destruction of the natural environment, accumulating climatic and nuclear disasters). 

Talal Asad, "Muhammad Asad between Religion and Politics," p. 163. 

Maryam Gamar (Vox): "From beans and rice to BBQ: Muslim Americans’ Ramadan cuisine reflects their diversity" (4/13/21)

 https://www.vox.com/2021/4/13/22378703/muslim-american-ramadan-food-intersectionality

featuring, among others, Imam Dawood Yasin!

David Warren: When Promoting Religious Freedom Abroad Threatens Minority Communities Back Home (April 6, 2021)

 https://religionandpolitics.org/2021/04/06/when-promoting-religious-freedom-abroad-threatens-minority-communities-back-home/

Nicholas Kristof: "President Biden Lets a Saudi Murderer Walk: The crown prince killed my friend Jamal Khashoggi, and we do next to nothing." (2/26/21)

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/opinion/sunday/saudi-arabia-biden-khashoggi.html

Professor Masooda Bano: "Making Islam Relevant: The Role of New Islamic Scholarly Networks in the West":

https://youtu.be/eInCSRu_-cI

Jill Filipovic in NYT: "Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Muslim Men and Western Women" (Feb. 9, 2021)

 It’s Hirsi Ali, though, who does exactly this: She finds stories of individual Muslim immigrants who commit heinous crimes, and by suggesting those stories are broadly representative, uses them to justify curtailing the opportunities afforded to the whole group. This is not, as she suggests, a feminism of standing up for the rights of women. It is a feminism of reaction — and one that would undermine the very liberal values Hirsi Ali begs feminists to protect.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/books/review/ayaan-hirsi-ali-prey.html

"Harvard Law Review elects first Muslim president" (Feb 5, 2021)

 BOSTON (Reuters) - The Harvard Law Review has named a Los Angeles-born Egyptian-American as what it believes is its first Muslim president in its 134-year history, elevating him to the top of one of the most prestigious U.S. law journals.

Harvard Law School student Hassaan Shahawy said he hoped his election represented “legal academia’s growing recognition of the importance of diversity, and perhaps its growing respect for other legal traditions.”

Among the legal and political luminaries who have worked at the Harvard Law Review was former U.S. President Barack Obama, named the journal’s first Black president in 1990. Three serving members of the U.S. Supreme Court were editors of the Harvard Law Review, as were the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia.

“Coming from a community routinely demonized in American public discourse, I hope this represents some progress, even if small and symbolic,” Shahawy, 26, told Reuters in an email.

Law reviews are staffed by the top students at U.S. law schools, who are often recruited for judicial clerkships and other prestigious jobs in the profession.

The review’s first female president, Susan Estrich, was elected in 1977. Other presidents have been Latino and openly gay. The first Black woman was elected president in 2017.

 

Shahawy graduated Harvard as an undergraduate in 2016 with a degree in History and Near Eastern Studies. He then attended the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to pursue a doctorate in Oriental Studies and studied Islamic law.

Shahawy said he has been active working with refugee populations and on criminal justice reform. His future plans are unclear, though he cited the possibility of becoming a public interest lawyer or working in academia.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-harvard-lawreview-idUSKBN2A52BX

"Muslim Reformers" Conference Schedule for 2/12/21 10 AM EST

 https://www.arabrrc.org/moslehun/en/conference-schedule/

NYU Gallatin Zoom Event: (1/29/21) "Housing Security in the Age of Covid-19"

Albert Gallatin Birthday Celebration: Highlighting Some of Gallatin's Social Justice Initiatives and Events

Corporate landlords, including private equity real estate, are once again poised to reap record profits in the midst of a crisis. Join a conversation with tenant organizers, scholar-activists, and policy analysts to envision life-affirming alternatives. We'll discuss ongoing tenant organizing wins and a proposal for a federal Social Housing Development Authority, a mechanism to keep the value of homes in the hands of the communities most impacted by racist housing policy, debt burdens, and the losses of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants
Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Director of the Urban Democracy Lab
Jacob H. Carlson, urban and political sociologist, focused on democracy, housing, and changing cities
Thomas Yu, co-Executive Director of Asian Americans for Equality in New York City
Pamela Phan, Right to City
Sara Duvisac, former Fellow in Urban Practice for the Urban Democracy Lab
Claudia Pagon Marchena, Legislative Aide to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Moderator: Marnie Brady, Assistant Professor of Politics and Human Rights at Marymount Manhattan College

Register at https://gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/events/2021/01/HousingSecurityintheAgeofCovid-19.html

David Brooks (NYT): "Trump Ignites a War Within the Church" (Jan. 14, 2021)

"This is what is happening inside evangelical Christianity and within conservatism right now. As a conservative Christian friend of mine put it, there is strife within every family, within every congregation, and it may take generations to recover."

[...] One core feature of Trumpism is that it forces you to betray every other commitment you might have: to the truth, moral character, the Sermon on the Mount, conservative principles, the Constitution. In defeat, some people are finally not willing to sacrifice all else on Trump’s altar.

The split we are seeing is not theological or philosophical. It’s a division between those who have become detached from reality and those who, however right wing, are still in the real world.

Hence, it’s not an argument. You can’t argue with people who have their own separate made-up set of facts. You can’t have an argument with people who are deranged by the euphoric rage of what Erich Fromm called group narcissism — the thoughtless roar of those who believe their superior group is being polluted by alien groups.

It’s a pure power struggle. The weapons in this struggle are intimidation, verbal assault, death threats and violence, real and rhetorical. The fantasyland mobbists have an advantage because they relish using these weapons, while their fellow Christians just want to lead their lives.

The problem is, how do you go about reattaching people to reality?

[...] Others have to be reminded of the basic rules for perceiving reality. They have to be reminded that all truth is God’s truth, that inquiry strengthens faith, that it is narcissistic self-idolatry to think you can create your own truth based on what you feel. There will probably have to be pastors and local leaders who model and admire evidence-based reasoning, wrestling with ideas.

On the left, leaders and organizations have arisen to champion open inquiry, to stand up to the cancel mobs. They have begun to shift the norms.

The problem on the right is vastly worse. But we have seen that unreason is a voracious beast. If it is not confronted, it devours not only your party, but also your nation and your church.

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/opinion/trump-evangelicals.html?